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LLNL, Ampera partner to develop thorium-based TRISO fuel
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has formed a strategic partnership with Ampera to develop the company’s nuclear fuel concept through a project named THUNDER, for Thorium Unimodal Droplet Ejection for Reactors.
The focus of THUNDER is fabricating TRISO made with kernels of thorium rather than the usual uranium. LLNL and Ampera will evaluate and optimize liquid metal–jetting technology to produce highly uniform, spherical kernels of thorium-232 for later processing into TRISO fuel.
J. J. Koelling, G. E. Hansen, C. C. Byers
Nuclear Technology | Volume 35 | Number 3 | October 1977 | Pages 611-616
Technical Paper | Reactor Siting | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31870
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The critical masses and fission and explosive energy releases of PuO2, PuO2-U2, UO2, and UO3 assemblies have been calculated. The parameters selected for the model are conservative. They were chosen after review of appropriate plants that have been and are proposed for construction in the future. The resulting data envelopes are intended to include any conceivable set of circumstances that could ultimately lead to a nuclear incident. All energy release analysis was performed for initial fission spikes only: recriticality mechanisms were not considered.